4x DVD+R/RW Roundup- Page 2

- Plextor PX-504A DVD+R/RW recorder

Plextor
PX-504A supports
DVD+R and writing at 4x CLV. For the DVD+RW
format, the supported writing speed is the 2.4x CLV.
The maximum reading speed for DVD-ROM and DVD Video is 12x CAV for single
layer and 7x CAV for dual layer discs.

As for the CD-R media, you can select among the 4x, 8x and 16x CLV writing
speeds, and 4x, 8x and 10x CLV writing for CD-RW format. The CD-ROM/-R/-RW
reading speed is 40x CAV.

The drive is equipped with a 2MB of buffer, and technology to protect the “buffer
underrun errors” during the writing process.

The supported RPCII region control allows the user to change the region code
5 times.

The drive offers the following writing modes: TAO, packet writing, SAO, multisession
and according to Nero InfoTool, DAO RAW 96. Of course, it supports DVD+R and
DVD+RW for the DVD.

- The package

The
retail package includes one 4.7GB 4x DVD+R disc for data/video by Verbatim,
one 4.7GB 2.4x DVD+RW disc by Verbatim also, a multilingual quick installation
guide, Plextor RMA form with detailed instructions for the procedure, a warranty
card and four software CD-ROM discs.

The software CD-ROM discs are packed in a very elegant package. The first
one is the well-known PlexTools CD/DVD utility software. This is not the Professional
version included in the latest CD recorder of the company, but includes all
the necessary utilities for easy maintenance and efficient usage of the drive.
In the same CD-ROM you can find the PX-504A PDF manual.

The CD/DVD burning application is Nero Burning Rom Plextor Version. PowerDVD
XP is the bundled DVD player software and for DVD editing / authoring users
can use the Pinnacle Studio v.8 SE.

Last, in the retail package you can find the usual internal audio cable, an
IDE cable, mounting screws and an emergency eject pin.

On the disc loading tray you can see "DVD+RW" , the "DVD-ROM" and
the "HSRW" logos. The disc/busy indicator LED lights up green when
the device is active. The drive has also a headphone jack and a headphone volume
control.

On the rear panel there are the usual connectors, such as the power input,
the ATAPI interface, the device configuration jumper, and the analog audio
output. As in the Mitsumi drive, the case was built to accept a ventilation
fan but this is not included in the Plextor model.

After removing the screws on the bottom we can see the drive's internal
design. Again, both mainboard and chips of the drive are manufactured by NEC.

- Installation

The Plextor drive was identified as "PLEXTOR DVDR PX-504A" under
WinXP. The drive was installed to the secondary IDE channel of our test PC
as a "Master” and worked in Ultra DMA Mode 2 transfer mode. The
model came with firmware version v1.01 installed, as you can see in the Nero
picture below:

The PX-504A we have in our hands was manufactured on February 2003 and the
TLA version is #0000.